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I have had, for the longest time, some seriously ugly yarn in the stash. I have no idea where it came from (probably either from a yard sale or thrift store or something) but I’m pretty sure I didn’t buy it new. I hope. It was four skeins of Lion Boucle, two skeins in Parfait (Rav link, not my stash) and two skeins in Jelly Bean (same deal). In addition to the fairly hideous (IMO) colorways, it was also a mostly-acrylic boucle. Not for knitting. Not ever for knitting. But I wanted them OUT OF THE STASH ALREADY since I’m trying to work the stash back down to reasonable levels. So I wove them.

The colors are still pretty bad, but they did weave up hella fast, so that was nice. The warp is just crochet cotton, of which I have a substantial amount for someone who doesn’t crochet doilies. Both were made on Vergere, the LeClerc, on a 5.5 dent reed. Plain tabby weave, super fast.

The seam is the same I used on the last couple of these. Sew right sides together, then fold over and sew down the selvages. Probably five minutes of sewing each.

The above cowl I sent to my sister. I’m not sure where the other one is going. I probably won’t wear it, since I have enough scarves and cowls already, and if I didn’t, I have plenty of yarn and time to make something in colors and fibers I actually like. Another item for the nebulous gift box that doesn’t really exist. Maybe I’ll put it up on Etsy. That would be an excellent way to work down the stash–make scarves and sell them. That was the idea with some drawstring bags, and I have yet to actually list them in the shop. Bleh.

Anyway, I’ll probably make a bunch more of these cowls. I have some more boucle yarn (in a sunny yellow acrylic I got from Target years ago when I first started knitting). They’re pretty quick and fairly practical. And I do love weaving. : )

Another cowl! I made this one first, actually, but no matter. My sister asked me to make her an infinity scarf/cowl for Christmas, and I complied. (I say for Christmas, but it’s mostly just because she asked–I would have made one in February too).

Yarn: Acrylic? Joe’s grandmother actually gave it to me in the form of a half-knit sweater
Loom: Bergere
Reed: 5.5 dpi
Weave: Tabby (it’s almost always tabby here)

The weaving on this cowl took me a bit longer than the black one, but then I did put it down for a couple of days. It’s a pretty open weave so I had to be more careful about beating, and that’s sometimes more concentration than I’m capable after work. The bulk of the weaving was done on a Sunday. And the seam is the same as the other one.

My sister recently moved to North Carolina, so I expect her winters will be a bit milder than in Virginia (although Virginia Beach winters are frequently pretty mild too), so I thought the open weave would be okay. Plus I wanted to use the yarn. It’s a white strand with a metallic blue ply that makes the whole thing a sort of ice blue color from a distance.

Anyway, I’m pretty pleased with how it came out. I hope my sister likes it, but she’s notoriously hard to please. I figure she can always give it to her roommate or send it back to me or whatever. I enjoyed weaving it, and that’s what matters.

I’ve called it the Hanukkah Cowl because it’s kind of a Hanukkah present. Joe’s sister asked if I would make her an infinity cowl, and I agreed. Since I finished it just a couple of days before Hanukkah (which started Wednesday night), I’m calling it a Hanukkah gift. Even though I’m not usually a gift person. I like making things for people, but usually only if they ask for something specific. I do make/buy gifts for Joe, but he’s really the only one with any regularity.

This wove up super fast. I mean, it’s worsted weight yarn on the loom, so yeah. Fast. I finished it in like two days of weaving in the evenings after work. The seam is about five total sewing lines–I zigzagged the ends of the fabric and cut off the fringe, then sewed a right-sides-together straight seam. And then I zigzagged the seam allowance down to the wrong side. It actually blends in fairly well. I don’t have a picture of the seam, but it’s fairly hard to see. I mean, it’s bulkier than the rest of the fabric, so it’s not impossible to find, but still.

I love the way this yarn wove up. I beat fairly loosely and it tightened up nicely. I have another skein or two of this yarn–maybe I’ll make another scarf or cowl or something. Not sure who for cause god knows I don’t need any more scarves (not that that stops me).

Anyway, I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving yesterday if you’re in the US and a lovely Thursday if you’re not. Be kind to Black Friday salespeople (Joe is one of them).

Next in the never-ending line of FOs from chez Stitch Brinn Stitch is a cowl I made for Anna-Marie of CorgiHillFarm (seriously, go buy her stuff, it’s amazing; I have, ahem, several braids).

Pattern: Pretty Thing by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Yarn: Filatura Di Crosa Superior, about half a skein
Needle: US 6/4 mm (that’s bigger than called for but I don’t have a 16″ US 4 and I knit tightly)
Mod: None, knit as written

I would definitely classify this as a smoke ring. It’s just a soft little wisp of a thing, but it’s so soft. The yarn is mostly cashmere, and it feels like wearing a kitten (so says Anna-Marie). It’s a gorgeous pattern and so simple to knit: only 119 stitches around and 61 rows. It knits up in no time.

(ignore my face please)

It would have been completely easy street knitting except for the yarn. Knit up, the yarn is gorgeous and soft and warm and lovely and just so nice. All those words. During the knitting, though? Oh, the knitting. It’s stringy, splitty, and a tiny little barely-there strand that made knitting k2togs a PITA. It was Not Fun to work with, especially for the first couple rows before there’s anything there to pull the knitting down.

Once I was about a centimeter in to the knitting, it was much better. If I got annoyed with it, I just stopped knitting and petted it for a while. And it is only 61 rows. I highlighted each row as I was working it, and that let me keep track of where I was really easily. I don’t often work from printed patterns (I usually just bring them up on a computer or phone or something and work from there; it doesn’t help that I don’t have a printer at home), but I do like it for charts.

I will almost certainly make another of these for me. I won’t use lace weight (I’ve learned that lesson), but I think it would be really nice in something with some body. Something to make it stand up a little instead of pooling around the throat (which is fine, just not generally what I want in a cowl). Maybe I’ll combine some cashmere and some silk or a cashmere/wool blend and knit it out of that. I have about half a skein of the Superior left. Maybe I’ll hold it together with something sturdier and let the cashmere halo make it soft like kittens.

In the mean time, it’s shark central over here and I’m knitting a bunch more things for Anna-Marie. I also had time to knit a separate thing for me, but you’ll hear more about that later. I’m planning to participate in NaBloPoMo again this year, wherein I attempt to post every day for the month of November. I’ve attempted it for the last couple of years, but I’ve yet to be successful. Maybe this year.

In fandom news, I’ve finished my rewatch of SG1. Sam Carter is still my favorite person ever, but Vala is a pretty close second. I’ve since started watching the Justice League, which is delightful. My feelings about the Justice League can pretty much be summed up thusly: If you don’t love Hawkgirl, you’re wrong. I watched Batman: Year One and Justice League: Doom the other day and then last night I watched an episode of Justice League that had Cheetah, but she wasn’t voiced by Claudia Black, which was super disappointing. Incidentally, Nathan Fillian makes the best Green Lantern ever, and he should be Green Lantern in all the things. In general, I prefer Marvel heroes to DC, but I do love what a great job DC does with continuity in the Animated Universe. If you’re interested in hearing (reading) me geek out over Justice League and other nerdery, my Twitter account is a good place to go. And yes, we’re still reading I, Jedi. Joe’s got a pretty terrible cold, so that’s kind of put a damper on the reading. We’ll finish it one day.

This was a super quick, fun knit, and I will definitely be making it again for me. The lace is fairly intuitive when you get the hang of it, and it would be super easy to add more repeats for a bigger cowl. The yarn, one which I’ve worked with several times now, is wonderful, as always. A squishy, soft base with an incredible depth of color.

The yarn is just a wee bit dark to really be able to see the pattern in the cowl. I think the original cowl, knit by the designer in a gradient yarn, is fabulous, and I’d love to make one of my own in a gradient. But the one I made is squishy and lovely, and I’m sad to have to give it up. But I know its owner will enjoy it immensely, so there’s that.

In life/fandom news: Still reading I, Jedi and still rewatching SG1. I got caught up on Castle (omg, feels) and I started watching Agents of SHIELD. OMG SHIELD. First of all, Gunn and Shepard Book were in the first episode, so hella squee there. And then there’s Coulson, who is completely perfect and UGH THIS SHOW. I love it to bits. It’s witty and snarky and I’m sure it has flaws, but I’m not seeing them right at the mo. It’s clearly going to get pretty episodic, but I’m mostly okay with that. Castle is super episodic, and I’m still completely enamored with that. Oh SHIELD. Because I needed another fandom. (Okay, it’s kinda technically in the Marvel/Avengers fandom BUT STILL.)

Subtitle: even more weaving plus another FO. So the weaving bug? I seriously have it. Seriously. I decided I wanted to try something more interesting than plain tabby weave, so I looked into houndstooth. I couldn’t really find instructions, but everywhere it’s mentioned, it says two warp threads of each color and two picks of each color. I didn’t really believe it (it should make squares, righy?) So I just warped it up and tried it. Lo and behold:

That is exactly what you get apparently. I wove this little sample:

It’s two colors of wool-ease (thrifted). Not sure what it will become. Maybe a mug rug or pot holder. Or maybe a little pounch. Once I had that done, I warped for some more houndstooth:

Super fun. This one is wool-ease (the white) and a recycled cotton-acrylic blend. When it was done, I set blocked the fabric and sewed it into a circle:

It’s a little cowl. Only long enough to wrap once around my neck and not tight enough to keep the chill away, but nice to wear nonetheless. I didn’t hem it or anything. Just sewed along each fringed end, cut off the fringe, overlapped the ends and sewed a seam. Easy peasy. I have another completed houndtooth project plus a length of fabric I plan to make into bags or maybe just one more interesting one. And I’ve just started another project for a bag. Weaving is so fast. I’m just cranking out finished objects-and using up tons of stash to boot.

I recently finished another non-shark FO! It was a commission, and it went faster than I thought it would.

Pattern: Marzipan Cowl (mine)
Yarn: Vanna’s Choice recycled from a vest I never wore
Needles: US 8/5mm I think
Mods: Made it a bit smaller around and the gauge is different.

I’m pretty pleased with how it came out and I was glad to make something other than mittens. I might make a similar one in wool for myself.

I am currently working on mittens, being exhausted from my actual job, and packing (sort of) for my holiday trip to Florida to visit my grandparents. During which I’ll likely be knitting all the things.

This post would have been more involved, but I’m exhausted, so there’s that. So yeah.

This sweet cowl will keep you warm all winter long! The body of the cowl is large so you can pull it up over your face or pin it close to keep a chill out. The ruffles will spread out over your shoulders and chest to keep you extra warm.

As promised, here are some better photos of my Diamonds and Ruffles Cowl (don’t forget to enter the contest!)

In other knitting news, I am thiiiiis close to finishing my WWFY Liesl. I just have a couple of pattern repeats on the sleeves and it’ll be done. I’m sending it back unblocked so the recipient can block it to her measurements. I also received two orders on Etsy for shark mittens, so I’ll be knitting those up next. After those, on my radar is my Halloween cape (I’m going to be Little Red Riding Hood). I was going to dye some angora/merino/nylon I frogged from a sweater, but I’m having trouble getting the color I want because there’s a lot of nylon, so I went ahead and ordered some Valley Northampton from WEBS and might just use that instead. I’m sure I’ll find a use for the other yarn.

Sorry for the unintentional radio silence, people! School has been kind of hectic.

Anyway, I recently finished knitting this pretty cowl:

(I have yet to take proper FO pics of this thing, but when I do, I’ll show them to you.)

Pattern: My own, which is currently being test knitted.
Yarn: A merino/angora/cashmere/nylon blend from a thrift store sweater
Needles: US 4/3.5 mm

I completely love it–the ruffles offer more coverage than the typical cowl, I love the lattice pattern and the turned hem, and the yarn is super soft and warm with things like cashmere and angora. Yay. I intend to wear it lots as soon as the weather gets cold enough.

What I am having trouble with, however, is a name for the pattern. Currently, it’s just called “Diamonds and Ruffles Cowl”, but I want something more interesting, so I’m opening it up to all of you: Suggest a name in the comments, and if I pick your suggestion, you’ll win a copy of the pattern AND the yarn to make it:

I’ll also pick a random entry from the comments to win a copy of the completed pattern.

To enter: Leave a comment below with your suggestion. Make sure you also include your email address or Ravelry username so I have a way to contact you. For an extra entry to win a copy of the pattern, you can tweet or blog about the contest and leave me a comment with the URL. The contest is open to everyone, regardless of location.

The contest will remain open until Sunday, October 10 at midnight, at which point I’ll draw a winner. Good luck!